


I Am Here

by TheRegularWriter



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dadster, Gen, Good W. D. Gaster, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Non-Binary Frisk, Not A Happy Ending, POV Second Person, POV Third Person, Undertale Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 16:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7515131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRegularWriter/pseuds/TheRegularWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Frisk calls Papyrus about a stranger they found inside a room with a gray door.<br/>However, as they give the description of the unknown person, Papyrus has memories of someone very important to him...</p><p>... his father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Am Here

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Undertale fanfiction, so I am sorry if the characters are OOC here, specially Sans.
> 
> Although I've read that Frisk cannot call anyone when they are in Room 268 (the corridor in Waterfall where they find the gray door), I liked to think about them actually having the possibility of letting Papyrus know about the door and the assumed W.D. Gaster behind it.  
> I also changed the POVs; in the very first part, the first POV, which is in second person, is Frisk's, meaning that the Reader is them. In the rest of the story, the POVs are all in third person. Just making it clear to you before you read.
> 
> I apologize for any mistakes in the writing; I'm not an expert in English...

You walk away from the SAVE point close to the cheese covered by the mystical crystal and move forward, to continue your journey. You leave the Crystal room and you find yourself in a long corridor...

... where you find a gray door.

You look around, confused. The door doesn’t fit the Waterfall’s environment. It seems to be completely out of place.

Curious, you approach the door. You try to open the door. It’s unlocked.

You push it slowly to see what’s inside...

... You see that you entered a strange and very small room. Just like the floor, the walls are all gray. It is a _very_ simple room...

However, you find... something standing in front of you.

You approach slowly....

You recognize the thing as an actual... being?

The unknown man/woman is bald, has white skin but has no ears. Their eyes have white pupils, like Sans’s. They have two scars on their face. They wear a black overcoat over a white sweater. Their hands can be seen, revealing holes in both. You look into their eyes again. They seem relaxed, and appear to be smiling.

They are sitting in the middle of the gray room. They are absolutely quiet.

You approach the stranger...

... leading him to react in surprise and vanish.

Perplexed, you walk around the whole room. You don’t find anything.

You give up and leave the room.

As you leave, however...

... the door disappears.

You blink. You try to understand what has just happened.

You question:

How did that door appear?

Who was that person? Was it a monster? Was it a ghost?

 _Where_ was that room?

You try to call Papyrus, to hear what he thinks of that, nor if he knows about a gray room which suddenly disappears after you leave it.

Ring... Ring...

“HELLO, HUMAN!” Papyrus says, cheerfully. “HOW CAN I HELP YOU?”

You tell him the experience you just had. You describe everything - the door, the room and the stranger you have seen. At the end, you ask him if he knows anything about a strange gray room which appears out of nowhere and then disappears. Papyrus, however, takes a long time to answer. You can hear his breathing getting funny, somehow.

“WAIT, YOU... YOU ENTERED A GRAY ROOM... YOU SAW A STRANGER WITH WHITE SKIN... WEARING A WHITE SWEATER ALMOST FULLY COVERED BY A BLACK OVERTOP... A-AND WHO HAD HOLES ON BOTH HANDS?” Papyrus repeats, questioning your experience.

You confirm, and you ask if Papyrus knows anything about gray rooms like that one.

“I... I... H-HUMAN, I AM SORRY, I... I HAVE TO HANG UP, I WILL... I WILL CALL YOU LATER ABOUT THAT. BYE!” He says, after being silent again.

He hangs up. Although you get more confused, you continue your journey.

~*~

Papyrus stared nervously at his cell phone, trying to understand the description of the mysterious room and the stranger the human had just seen.

While the human described the unknown person, Papyrus formed a familiar image in his head. He remembered someone... very important to him.

The stranger had a similar appearence to...

... him.

W.D. Gaster.

Former Royal Scientist, responsible for creating the CORE.

His... father.

Although Papyrus didn’t have many memories of him, he remembered his physical appearence as he analysed the human’s description of the stranger. It was very accurate to Gaster, with the exception of the scars on the unknown person’s face, which weren’t present on his father’s face and... and the smile on the stranger’s face.

Papyrus suddenly remembered more things about his father. He recalled Gaster’s expression. The scientist wasn’t a “smiler”; he used to be very serious most of the time. Despite that, he was still a caring father. He might not have spent much time with his sons due to his work, but he did everything to give Sans and Papyrus a good life.

When he smiled, though... it was very warming. Papyrus loved seeing his father smile, specially when it was directed to his sons. Their family moments were very special.

The skeleton couldn’t help but wonder...

... was that stranger...

... him?

 _NO, IT CANNOT BE!_ Papyrus thought.

Gaster disappeared a long time ago. How could he just... come back like that? Sans told Papyrus he disappeared and was never seen again. Papyrus still thought that he might have gotten lost somewhere – probably the CORE, since he spent most of his time there – and could never find his way back home.

The fact that the stranger was inside a gray room that soon disappeared was very... nerve-wracking.

_NO, STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS! IT CANNOT BE HIM..._

He couldn’t stop thinking about that, though. Papyrus breathed heavily. In order to stop thinking about the stranger potentially being his father, he decided to cook some spaghetti. Maybe that would distract him from that disturbing thought.

~*~

“yo, papyrus, you home?”

Sans has arrived home. He decided to take a break on the telescope business at Waterfall to see his brother. After all, it was dinner time; he could smell the spaghetti coming from the kitchen. Sans used to go to Grillby’s, but decided to have dinner with Papyrus that day.

Sans approached Papyrus, but noticed that something could be bothering the younger skeleton.

“papyrus?”

Papyrus looked at him, a bit surprised. Sans wasn’t used to go home for dinner, after all.

“OH, SANS... YOU ARE NOT EATING AT GRILLBY’S TODAY?” Papyrus asked.

“no... i don’t know, i wanted to have some dinner with my bro.”

Papyrus smiled lightly. He sighed and glanced at his spaghetti. For somewhat reason, it didn’t appear to be... tasty.

“you okay?” Sans asked.

Papyrus sighed again, not looking at Sans.

“SANS... THE HUMAN TOLD ME SOMETHING... SOMETHING VERY... STRANGE.” He answered.

The brothers walked to the green couch of the living room, sitting on it.

“THEY TOLD ME THEY HAD SEEN A STRANGER...” Papyrus continued.

“the underground is full of them, isn’t it?”

“NO, SANS. BY THAT I MEAN A _VERY_ STRANGE STRANGER! I MEAN, IT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF STRANGER! THE HUMAN DESCRIBED THEM AS A TALL, WHITE PERSON WEARING A WHITE SWEATER UNDER A BLACK OVERCOAT, WHO HAD HOLES ON BOTH HANDS!”

Sans stayed quiet, somehow shocked.

“DO YOU THINK IT IS... WHO I THINK IT IS??” Papyrus asked, kinda scared.

“who do you mean...?”

“YOU KNOW, SANS... _HIM_.”

Sans knew who Papyrus was mentioning. That was impossible. There was no way.

“it can’t be him, papyrus.”

“WHY NOT? THE STRANGER HAS THE EXACT SAME APPEARENCE AS HIM!... WELL, EXCEPT FOR THE SCARS ON THEIR FACE, BUT STILL! WHAT IF...?”

Sans never had the guts to tell Papyrus what had happened to W.D. Gaster... His experiments had failed. The scientist had gotten sucked by his own creation, being shattered across time and space.

“papyrus, you don’t understand...”

“SANS, WHAT IF HE’S TRYING TO FIND HIS WAY HOME? WHAT IF HE’S STILL OUT THERE, LOST AND CONFUSED??”

“no, papyrus! that’s impossible! he’s _dead_!”

Papyrus gasped, shocked. Sans immediately felt regret for letting that out.

“W-WHAT...?”

“p-papyrus, i... i never told you this, but... dad... he... look, it’s a long story... i mean, that machine in the basement... it didn’t work, and... everything went wrong and... dad got sucked by it. the machine broke, which concludes t-that...”

Sans looked at his brother. Papyrus was about to cry, as he saw tears forming in his eyes.

“he died, papyrus... i-i’m so sorry for not telling you before, but...”

Papyrus stood up, trying to hide his tears by drying them with his fingers.

“I-I...” he tried to say something.

“it would’ve been really hard for you if i said this before....”

“B-BUT THEN... HOW... H-HOW IS THAT STRANGER...”

“papyrus, i’m telling you: it _can’t_ be him.”

Papyrus took a deep breath, nodding sadly. Sans stared at him, feeling bad for not telling him about his father’s death.

“maybe it was just... a vision the human had? you know how weird the underground can be sometimes.” Sans speculated.

“YES... YES, I KNOW...”

“papyrus-“

“SANS, I... I N-NEED A MOMENT.”

Papyrus went upstairs, closing his bedroom’s door, but he didn’t lock it. Sans stared at the television, not knowing what to do next.

~*~

It had been quite a long time since Papyrus entered his room. He normally didn’t do that. He had a good reason, though. He was very astonished. Knowing that his father was dead the whole time and would never come back saddened Papyrus a lot, too.

He lied on his racing car bed, curled up into a ball. He couldn’t believe his father was gone. He really wanted to see him again. Sighing, Papyrus closed his eyes, remembering the time Gaster smiled at the nice Father’s Day card that Sans and Papyrus gave him. He looked so happy...

Papyrus missed his smile. He missed his affection. If only there was a way to see him...

Yet he couldn’t help but still remember the description of the stranger given by the human. How come they looked so similar to Gaster?

_IT COULD HAVE BEEN A VISION, LIKE SANS SAID..._

Papyrus sighed again, opening his eyes. He looked at his room’s wall...

... and, for somewhat reason, there was a gray door.

Papyrus froze. A gray door, just like the one the human saw in a corridor at Waterfall...

How was it there? In his room?

He stood up. He started shaking a little. It was kind of frightening the thought of that door showing up in several places... Despite the fear he had under his spine, he didn’t call for help.

Could it really be _him_ behind that door?

Papyrus approached nervously, opening the door slowly. He could see... a very bright room, instead of being gray. The room was way bigger. It had just a narrow bright gray floor. Standing in front of Papyrus was a tall figure with a white skin.

The skeleton gasped. The figure noticed his presence and turned to him.

Tall...

Black overcoat, white sweater...

White pupils...

Bald head...

Holes in both hands...

“W-WHAT THE?!!!!” Papyrus screamed.

Instead of disappearing, the stranger spoke, in a distorted, yet familiar, voice:

**_DO NOT BE AFRAID..._ **

“T-THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE, IT C-CAN’T BE YOU!!!”

**_EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE..._ **

**_... MY SON._ **

Papyrus’s eyes widened.

“D-DAD...?”

He could see a smile forming on... _his_ face.

**_YES... IT IS ME._ **

Papyrus approached Gaster, trying to touch him. However, the room became darker. Gaster’s body slowly vanished.

“N-NO! DAD!” Papyrus yelled, crying.

**_DO NOT WORRY... I WILL BE ALRIGHT..._ **

Gaster stepped back. Papyrus wanted to run after him, but he couldn’t move his legs.

“DAD!!!!!!!!”

Suddenly, the room turned black, and Gaster disappeared. Yet Papyrus could hear his voice, not distorted, saying:

**_... PAPYRUS._ **

~*~

“papyrus!!”

Papyrus jumped, scared. He was shaking and sweating. He recognized Sans standing up next to his bed, looking really concerned.

“are you alright? i heard you scream and when i came here you were crying and shaking and- w-what happened?”

Papyrus couldn’t focus on things right. He was very moved because of that...

... dream?

Was it all a dream? It felt so real...

He looked at the wall. That gray door wasn’t there.

“S-SOMETHING REALLY CRAZY H-HAPPENED!!” Papyrus screamed. “T-THAT GRAY DOOR, SANS! I-I SAW THAT GRAY DOOR RIGHT HERE IN MY ROOM AND I O-OPENED IT AND I S-SAW HIM, SANS!!”

“w-what?!”

“IT’S SERIOUS! I SAW DAD!!! HE WAS BEHIND THAT DOOR! H-HE SPOKE TO ME, SANS! HE CALLED ME ‘SON’!! H-HE RECOGNIZED ME! B-BUT THEN EVERYTHING TURNED BLACK AND HE VANISHED AND-!!!”

“woah, woah! papyrus, calm down!”

Papyrus started crying. Sans hugged him. The younger brother tightened the hug, sobbing on Sans’s shoulder.

“it was just a dream, bro...” Sans said, patting Papyrus’s back. “it’s okay...”

Papyrus continued weeping.

“I SAW DAD, SANS!!” He repeated, sobbing.

“papyrus, calm down, it was all just a dream...”

**_IT WAS NOT A DREAM..._ **

Sans and Papyrus froze. They looked around the room.

**_I AM HERE..._ **

They gasped as they saw an almost transparent Gaster standing in front of them.

“w-what the...”

“D-DAD?!”

Gaster’s smile widened sadly.

**_SANS... PAPYRUS..._ **

His figure turned opaque. He was really there.

Sans and Papyrus approached him. Both were perplexed, not believing the presence of their father.

“Y-YOU’RE REAL?!”

“t-that’s impossible, how are you...” Sans whispered.

**_REMEMBER, SANS... EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE..._ **

“Everything is possible” was a phrase that Gaster had always told them whenever they thought of giving up on something that seemed impossible.

Sans’s eyes widened. Papyrus cried more... but he cried tears of joy. Gaster wasn’t gone. He was right there. Smiling at them. Speaking to them.

“DAD!!!!!!!”

Papyrus ran to hug him. He could feel his body. He could feel his father’s arms wrapping the skeleton’s body.

Sans simply stood there, not knowing what to do. He was almost crying.

“I MISSED YOU!!!” Papyrus said, sobbing on his father’s stomach.

Tears were forming on Gaster’s eyes. He looked sadly at Sans, giving him a smile. He caressed Sans’s head with his hand. The short skeleton froze completely. Tears fell from his eyes.

“d-dad...” Sans whispered.

Gaster lost the smile on his face.

**_MY DEAR SONS... I... I AM SO SORRY... I HAVE FAILED AT GIVING EVERYONE THE FREEDOM THEY DESERVE..._ **

Papyrus looked up to Gaster, losing his smile.

**_I HAVE FAILED YOU... I HAVE BEEN A TERRIBLE FATHER... I AM DEEPLY SORRY..._ **

“NO, DAD! DON’T APOLOGIZE! YOU DID EVERYTHING FOR US!! THAT’S WHAT A GOOD FATHER DOES, RIGHT?”

Gaster sighed.

**_NO, I HAVE BARELY SPENT TIME WITH YOU... I HAVE BEEN SO FOCUSED TRYING TO GIVE YOU EVERYTHING THAT... I HAVE NOT GIVEN YOU LOVE..._ **

“DAD, THAT’S NOT TRUE...”

**_I..._ **

Suddenly, Gaster’s body started vanishing once again. He lightly pushed Papyrus, crying.

“NO!!! DAD!!!!”

**_SANS, PAPYRUS..._ **

**_... NEVER FORGET..._ **

When the vanishing reached his head, Gaster said, with a saddening smile:

**_... I LOVE YOU._ **

“NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

He disappeared again. Papyrus fell on his knees, sobbing.

“DAD!!!!” He screamed, tons of tears falling from his eyes.

Sans stared at the floor, astonished. Then he looked at his brother. He put his hands on his shoulders. His left eye turned blue.

“i.... i c-can’t believe... h-he was right here...... h-he was actually here....” Sans whispered.

Sans cried. Papyrus stood up just to hug his brother again.

~*~

Although his body has disappeared...

... he was still there.

As he was stuck across time and space, he managed to come back and give his sons a hug. He attempted to do that so many times, he had even lost the count. Unfortunately, everytime he came back to his reality he started vanishing in a short period of time. And as he tried so hard to do it in the last time, he probably could never do that again.

Gaster couldn’t come back for the sake of his sons. He wished to make up for all of his mistakes he had made as a father. He couldn’t escape that painful dimension. His machine had broke and it could never be fixed.

Gaster kneeled next to his sons. He touched them, but they couldn’t feel his touch. Although Sans and Papyrus probably wouldn’t listen to him, he said:

**_I AM SORRY FOR NOT BEING A BETTER FATHER. I WISH I COULD COME BACK... I CANNOT RETURN._ **

**_HOWEVER... I AM NOT DEAD. I AM STUCK IN AN AWFUL REALITY. I MAY NEVER COME BACK, BUT... EVEN IF YOU CANNOT SEE ME, I WILL BE AT YOUR SIDE..._ **

**_... I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN._ **


End file.
